Shared responsibility for health: the cultural change we need

In this long read we argue that one of the biggest challenges facing the NHS is cultural. Specifically, the relationship between the public and the NHS, and between patients and the staff who care for them, needs to be transformed. Click here for link to King's Fund blog

5 years on: responses to Francis: changes in board leadership and governance in acute hospitals in England since 2013

This report, written by the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham in partnership with the University of Manchester and the Nuffield Trust, reveals that hospital boards report that they are placing a high priority on care quality and safety, and many invested significantly in nurse and medical staffing in the wake of the Francis Report. However, some hospital boards reported feeling that quality assurance as a pressure, as the demands of multiple external regulators was reported to sometimes feel burdensome, threatening to distract from a focus on the actual work of service improvements.

Embedding a culture of quality improvement

This report from the King's Fund explores thefactors that have helped organisations to launch a quality improvement strategy,and the key enablers for sustaining a focus on continuous quality improvement. The report draws on a roundtable event, semi-structured interviews with senior NHS leaders and stakeholders involved in quality improvement initiatives, and a literature review. It identifies relevant learning from organisations that have already adopted quality improvement approaches, and focuses on how senior leaders can create the right conditions for quality improvement to emerge and flourish.

Learning from improvement: special measures for quality

Four years after the introduction of special measures, NHS Improvement reviewed the experience of trusts that exited the process so we can better understand why they entered special measures, what actions they took and how they implemented change to improve.

Protect trainee doctors to protect patient safety

Annual trainee quality panels can help address bullying and other cultural and safety issues within local hospitals and training posts, say Zoe Oliphant and Iona Thorne

The Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) has recently highlighted the widespread bullying of surgical trainees and its impact upon patient safety. RCSEd reported that around the time of an operation, disruptive behaviour contributes to 67 per cent adverse events, 71 per cent medical errors and 27 per cent perioperative deaths.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that trainee surgeons are being assaulted and that one in six surgical trainees suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

To obtain this article copy and paste the post into an email and send to: libraryw@uhcw.nhs.uk

Culture and leadership programme: phase 2 'design

This is the second in a series of three resources designed to help NHS providers develop cultures that enable and sustain continuously improving safe, high quality and compassionate care.

See also phase 1, 'Discover.'

Merger trust seeks to fix 'cultural' differences between managers and clinicians

Trust leaders have outlined plans to address “cultural” differences between clinicians and managers at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

For full text please request from libraryw@uhcw.nhs.uk

Culture of care barometer

The Culture of Care Barometer (CCB) is a survey tool designed to help organisations gauge the culture of care they provide. It supports organisations to understand the culture within organisations, multidisciplinary teams and groups by encouraging discussion and reflection.

NHS Employers announces the Diversity and Inclusion Partners 2017/18

Following a rigorous selection process, 30 NHS organisations have been chosen to be part of our 2017/18 diversity and inclusion partners programme.

The successful organisations are awarded partner status after demonstrating that they are delivering against six measurable criteria:

• improving patient access and experience
• empowered, engaged and well-supported staff
• inclusive leadership at all levels
• better health outcomes for all
• commitment to the partners programme
• their organisation will benefit from taking part in the programme

You can find more information about the 2017/18 diversity and inclusion partners on the partner’s web page.

New report reveals the value of occupational health for the UK workforce

A new report Occupational health: the value proposition published by the Society of Occupational Medicine sets out the importance of occupational health services and the benefit they can bring.

The report looks at the value that occupational health services can give in reducing long term sickness and promoting a healthy workplace culture. In the UK in 2015/16, an estimated 25.9 million working days were lost due to work-related illness, while an estimated 4.5 million days were lost due to workplace injury.

Caring to change: How compassionate leadership can stimulate innovation in health care

This paper from the King's Fund looks at compassion - which involves attending, understanding, empathising and helping – as a core cultural value of the NHS and how compassionate leadership results in a working environment that encourages people to find new and improved ways of doing things.

It also describes four key elements of a culture for innovative, high-quality and continually improving care and what they mean for patients, staff and the wider organisation:

• inspiring vision and strategy
• positive inclusion and participation
• enthusiastic team and cross-boundary working
• support and autonomy for staff to innovate.

How Cultural Alignment and the Use of Incentives Can Promote a Culture of Health

This report from the RAND Corporation discusses how concepts of cultural identity (e.g. ethnicity, religion or sexuality) and organisational culture can be harnessed to create a culture of health and how incentives can be used to promote wellbeing.

The time to value our staff is now

Staff morale is reaching crisis point – so what can policy-makers and senior leaders do to tackle the problem?

Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week 2017

The sixth Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week #EQW2017 will take place from 15 to 19 May 2017.

Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week is a platform for organisations to highlight their work to create a fairer, more inclusive NHS for patients and staff. This year's theme diverse, inclusive, together was chosen to reflect the move across the health and care sector towards collaboration and integration.

AAGBI calls for a change to the culture around night shift working

The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) sets out its three-point plan to address the culture surrounding doctor fatigue in hospitals and tackle the problem of excessive fatigue, which is known to impair decision making, with consequences for both doctors and their patients.

1. Support publication of a national survey about junior doctor fatigue, covering accessibility of hospital rest facilities, commuting after working night shifts and the impact of fatigue on physical and psychological health.
2. Roll out of a fatigue education programme informing doctors and their managers about fatigue and how they can reduce its risks.
3. Defining the standards for adequate rest facilities and cultural attitudes towards rest in hospitals.

Creating a great place to work

Taking place on 23 March in London, and with a 20 per cent discount for Confed members, Great Place to Work is designed to help NHS leaders build a culture of trust and engagement that attracts and retains employees, drives creativity and maximises your organisation’s productivity.

Building a culture of learning and development at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

Find out how staff at STHFT have used strong partnership working to embed learning and development in their organisational culture, in this latest case study published by NHS Employers..

Shaping leadership behaviours

Dan Robertson the diversity and inclusion director at the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) is a global expert on workplace inclusion, unconscious bias and leadership decision making.

At the diversity and inclusion conference in September Dan spoke about how the behaviours of inclusive leaders can be applied in the health and social care sector to achieve cultural change.

Take a look at Dan's conference presentation and watch a short video in which he reflects on the day and summarises what inclusive leadership behaviours look like in a modern organisation.

Developing effective STP leadership teams

Before STP areas can solve the problems facing local health economies, they have to solve the immediate problem of how to work together.
“The strength of relationships will be the single most important factor for success,” says PCC chief executive Helen Northall. “Because STPs are planning collaboratives not formal organisations, there will be no hierarchy or structure to fall back on. Without a strong team ethos and mature leadership able to identify win-wins for all stakeholders, the chances of consensus and effective decision-making are remote.” PCC can support the rapid development of multi-organisational boards with clear vision and achievable action plans. Contact helen.northall@pcc.nhs.uk for further information.

Diversity and inclusion in the NHS 2016 conference resources

We have created a suite of online resources following the 2016 diversity and inclusion conference. The resources share learning from the day and will help you to continue the journey to embed diversity and inclusion in your organisation.